First Impression: Wanted: Weapons of Fate

So I haven't posted in god knows when, and some of you may have tuned into podcast and wondered two things:
A. Tsurai's voice is damn sexy
B. What the fuck is he talking about? One Chinese guy versus ten Japanese? Que?

Well I'm here to give you an answer: shut up. It's my analogy and I will cryptically say it as I damn well please. Now onto the topic at hand: Wanted.

Again, shut up. I know the game is not out yet, that's why we have demos. Yes the demos, those grand peeks into the future that actually obscure the general game at hand, but we try them anyway because we want to know what we're about to dip into before we burn that precious money that we don't give banks to due to the issues of trust-funds and other frauds. Good times.

Those of you who are fans of the comics or the movie probably anticipated Warner Brothers would be whoring the title for more cash, and they have: "Wanted: Weapons of Fate" places you into the position of Wesley Gibson, the self-proclaimed bastard child of a legendary assassin. During the course of the game you will progress as both Wesley and his father, Cross. During the demo, you'll progress through a very small portion of the larger storyline (hopefully) whereas in the tutorial, you will play as Wesley.

The game itself is a standard Third-Person Shooter: take for cover, shoot, flank, suppression, etc. Probably the two features that set this game aside from the general 3PS is the ability to run while shooting and curving the path of the bullets, though both features require kills in order to build up a type of gauge to deplete while performing these actions. Aside from that, you have your standard difficulties, appropriately labeled as such: Pussy, Assassin, and The Killer. Sadly, you will only get to play on Pussy for the demo, how iconic.

The only issue one will come across is graphics. Developed by GRIN, who seems to have only developed a handful of games, the graphics fit the settings at hand but still could use some tweaking; however, the game is bound to release on the 24th of March, so that cry will go unanswered.

Despite the simplistic game play and average graphics, the game still has it's "in-your-face" attitude, including moments where Wesley humiliate the player for wasting his/her pathetic existence away with video games and being an overall failure of humanity. While myself and others know this to be another franchise cow Warner wants to milk dry, I still intend to buy this game for all it's success/failures. I hope others will to, otherwise: "What the fuck have you done lately?"

News: Dreamcast/Arcade Virtual-On Coming to XBLA

The story, as broken over at Kotaku is that in the lastest issue of Famitsu Weekly, Sega has annouced it's bringing its widely popular mech-battle series "Virtual On" to the Xbox Live Arcade. This has already started speculation that other popular Dreamcast titles, that Sega has recently re-trademarked, are going to be making their way over to the XBLA as well.

Honestly? I was a proud owner of my Dreamcast, and I loved the hell out of the Virtual On series, especially OT, which is getting the port this time around. With the 360's twin analog sticks, console players are going to finally be able to play it like it should be played, without having to buy twin sticks seperately. 

Check the video to see what Virtual On is all about:

No, the video is not sped up. The game is actually that fast.

Oh and Sega? If you port Jet Grind Radio, you'll break my WoW addiction. And I will make sweet love to you, forever.

Intro And Review: The Last Remnant

Hey folks, new blogger to FRAG'D so I might as well introduce. You can call me Tsurai. Guess I'm this blogs "Asian guy who plays too many RPG's" Yes I play RPG's, not too much since I haven't seen one worthwhile; so to review a good RPG, might as well praise one made by the masters of RPG's: Square Enix.

A few months have passed since the release of "The Last Remnant", and though I've had it for maybe two months since buying a 360, I've scarcely played it; thus I consider this a "First Impression" rather than a "Review", but I'm new here. Cut me some slack.

Graphics
The Last Remnant has stunning visual appeal for a game made by Square Enix on an American system...granted it would load fast enough. It would take somewhere between 5-10 seconds for the full texture of objects to fully load before anything looks remotely beautiful as the screenshots captured them to be. In the time it takes for such pixels to load, you're bound to observe people that they're supposed to resemble. In a way, you'll have a few moments to reminisce of the original Xbox graphics until you're back in Next-Gen.

Gameplay

You'll find the gameplay very simplistic at first, but that's because of the handicap of using another guy's army. At the very start of the game, they'll introduce some very basic mechanics: hit this thing, move here, etc. By the time they're done with kiddie time, it's the player's turn to step up as General Patton. Your main character, named Rush Sykes, will have to start building up his own squad of generic characters and maybe another "leader". This squad will probably begin with you and another leader, but eventually recruit more characters to build up into a powerful little platoon. From there, one must develop tactics using provided formations of little parties in order to effectively attack/defend; this includes the ideas of interlocking, flank attacks, zerging, and so forth. And of course, let's not forget the basics of RPG's: leveling and gear - not only for the main character, but your other leaders and generic minions, and this ranges from 2-20 people total to level.

Gripes

Ignoring the very simple yet complex combat and the graphics load, you have one other major concern: lag. Yes you heard it here, lag. There will be MULTIPLE instances where your characters will begin to slow down and possibly even stop for what feels like an eternity but only to discover that 8 seconds have passed. Having it as a turn-based RPG, that's no problem, but to have discovered one of your parties has fallen is aggrevating. The last major problem are fighting bosses while "under-leveled". Having it as a "growing level system", you'll never see what level you are, thus you're to guess just when you're prepared. Common sense would dictate that "it's when you stop getting exp, nub." Wrong, you'll never know when the flow haults. The only time one can tell if you're under-leveled is if one of your squad leaders fall (which, by the way, results in an entire party falling if the party's leader falls). You will also endure the immortal voice talents of Johnny Yong Bosch, so you may get tired of it if you've heard his voice in every other Anime known to mankind.

Last Words

I personally stopped playing this almost weeks after I got it, so I may have thrown in the towel early. Being a Square Enix fan, I bought it as soon as I bought a 360, but I advise renting it first to feel the flow. To those who do not have a 360, fear not. Well, fear the wait. The Last Remnant will be hitting PC on April 9th this year...for Japan. It's from Japan, that's what you get. Europe will be expecting Last Remnant March 20th, no current word for the US. Seeing as how Square Enix SHOULD be supporting Playstation 3 (yes, I'm one of those guys who believe Square has turned their back on their country), Last Remnant will also be hitting Playstation 3, yet the date has not yet been specified.

If you enjoy it, I praise you for your dedication. If not, I feel the same pain. My last piece of advice for this game, boss fights. You can only assume you're not ready but take the risk anyway because dying in a boss fight is the only way to measure your progess; thus I say place these words from the great Illidan Stormrage from World of Warcraft into your head: "YOU ARE NOT PREPARED!!!"

First Impressions: Burnout Paradise

Yes, I know that it should be a little late to be doing a "first impression" on a game that was released over a year ago, but I honestly have not bought a racing game in several years, so when it came out, my reaction was little more than "meh" and I passed it by. It wasn't until the game started popping up on Game of the Year lists, and on the podcasts that I listen to regularly that I took notice of it, and downloaded the demo. Five minutes into the demo, I was hooked.

As of yesterday, I'm the proud owner of a new copy of Paradise, and so far, I'm pleased as hell. The game is what the Need For Speed series should have been. Open world, fun as hell weaving through traffic, fast game play (even on your first car) that you never get tired of. The game so far has the perfect balance of control, while keeping you on the edge of destruction right around every corner. The relatively small crashing penalty is a major plus as well. Watch your car crumble to bits, and a couple seconds later, your car is good as new, and you're back on the road.

I've only unlocked a few cars so far, but the latest patch and the legendary cars will probably keep me from caring if I unlock more.

Yes, that's pretty much the DeLorean.

Final word: Burnout Paradise is a blast at a bargain ($20 for a new copy) and I'm loving every minute of it so far.

Grand Theft Auto IV, First Impressions

Ah, Grand Theft Auto. The series that truly defined open-world game play, and is responsible for a million bad GTA clones flooding the market every year. I recently borrowed the latest in the series, and I've played it for a few hours to get a feel for it.

First off, the game has no main menu. It's rather bothersome that you have to let the game load up the whole city, then access Nico's phone, just to get to the multiplayer, options, ect. It's not game breaking, and I may just be stuck in my old ways, but it still irks me.

As it loads, you're sort of forced through a couple single player missions before you are allowed to go do the open world stuff, but just like in GTA III, the bridges to the other islands are initially blocked off, so it's not really worth it anyway. I haven't really found much to actually do in the open world gameplay so far, so there's not too much for me to talk about in that regard.

Early on, I can tell that if you're not a dedicated fan to the series, it's going to take some patience to get to the meat and potatoes of the game. I didn't get a gun until about 15 escort driving missions in, and really, that's when I started actually having fun. The story is rather weak at the moment, so I do hope it picks up.

That's my critique so far on the overall story aspects, however I do want to bring up something that's been bothering me. Who, in their goddamn right mind, approved this driving scheme, and then put in so many fucking chase missions? Fucking seriously. Driving a car in this game is like if you turned power steering in your car off, then wore down the tread on your tires, and coated them in fucking petroleum jelly. The cars handle worse than a three year old on his first time ice skating.

It's a good thing they put in a rather detailed car damage system, since you're going to spend most of the time going from point A to point B CRASHING INTO THINGS.


To sum it up, I'm so far unimpressed with Grand Theft Auto IV. Hopefully, things will pick up in the game sooner rather than later. Otherwise, I see myself returning this game back to its owner much earlier than we both anticipated.